Here’s what really happens to your body when you swallow gum

You might have heard the rumors as a kid: Swallow gum and it’ll
sit stubbornly in your stomach for seven long years.

But what does science have to say about that? Reactions,
a video series from the American Chemical
Society, traced the steps taken by our body's digestive
system to find out that while some of the gum we chew can survive
digestion, it "doesn’t mean the gum you swallowed in grade school
is still there."

Phew.

Turns out there are three basic components of digestion: The
first includes the mechanical processes that are required to
process your food when you first ingest it, i.e. chewing. The
second focuses on the enzymes or proteins in your saliva and
stomach that help break down that food. Last but not least
are acids, which dissolve what's left into something your
body can comfortably pass through your intestines.

Traditionally when you eat, your teeth and tongue work together
to munch the food into small bits. Then your muscle movements
push the food through the digestive tract until it is emptied
into the stomach and churned with digestive juices, as shown
below:

While this is happening, the enzymes in your saliva, stomach
juices, and intestines drive chemical processes that allow you to
convert that food into nutrients your body can use.

Then, the acids in your stomach get to work, dissolving what’s
left of that food into a mush that your body can comfortably
pass through your intestines and, eventually...dispose of.

But gum isn’t designed to be smoothly digested by your body like
regular food. That’s because it contains either a natural or
synthetic rubber base, which is what gives it its gummy
consistency. Butyl rubber, commonly used in gum (as well as tires
and basketballs, mm!), is a synthetic rubber that provides it
with an ideal chewiness.

You’ve probably noticed that gum is unaffected by the crushing of
your teeth — that’s kind of the point. So when you swallow the
gum, it moves through your digestive tract into your stomach as
one giant wad.

While your enzymes are able to break down the carbohydrates,
oils, and alcohols in the gum as they would with regular food,
the rubber base in the gum is basically immune to these enzymes.

Even the “harsh brew” of acids in your stomach is no match
for this rubber base. (Remember that rubber is so resilient that
we use it in gloves for protection.) As a result, part of
your gum survives all of your digestive system's attempts to
break it down.

But so do parts of a lot of other things you eat, like sunflower
seeds or corn. So while that gum you swallowed is rebellious
enough to stand up to your digestive processes, that doesn’t stop
your muscles from eventually ushering it through your body and
out the other end within a couple days.